'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Use a cap. Bill Lawrence used to do this. Connect the cap to the series connection between coils to ground.

It keeps the low end as a humbucker and the highs as a single coil. It has nothing to do with the tone control.


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[Dave Locher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Use a cap. Bill Lawrence used to do this. Connect the cap to the series connection between coils to ground.

It keeps the low end as a humbucker and the highs as a single coil. It has nothing to do with the tone control.


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Can you explain this a bit more? Use what value cap?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Can you explain this a bit more? Use what value cap?

Normally you do a coil cut by taking the series connection between the two coil, and connecting it to ground. This grounds out the one coil (who's one side was connected to ground already. If you use a .022 uF cap between that series connection and ground it will only bypass that coil in the treble frequencies. You will still get the low frequencies, as determined by the value of the cap.

So now the pickups is hum canceling in the low frequencies, which helps with the hum, and keeps the tone fatter, and meanwhile you only hear one coil for the treble frequencies, so it's brighter like a single coil.

Larger value caps lower the cross over point. So you could also try a .047uF or maybe even a .1uF. Smaller values raise it. .022 generally works great.

You can also take the end of that cap and instead of connecting it to ground, connect it to the hot. Now you are bypassing the other coil, but this forms a resonant type circuit. It gives a different type of tone.


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[gregory]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

You have a "resonant-type" circuit either way: KVL.

I often split by taking the series connection to hot. There is no difference in tone.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Normally you do a coil cut by taking the series connection between the two coil, and connecting it to ground. This grounds out the one coil (who's one side was connected to ground already. If you use a .022 uF cap between that series connection and ground it will only bypass that coil in the treble frequencies. You will still get the low frequencies, as determined by the value of the cap.

So now the pickups is hum canceling in the low frequencies, which helps with the hum, and keeps the tone fatter, and meanwhile you only hear one coil for the treble frequencies, so it's brighter like a single coil.

Larger value caps lower the cross over point. So you could also try a .047uF or maybe even a .1uF. Smaller values raise it. .022 generally works great.

You can also take the end of that cap and instead of connecting it to ground, connect it to the hot. Now you are bypassing the other coil, but this forms a resonant type circuit. It gives a different type of tone.


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Thanks! Something to try when i assemble my next guitar...

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Is it possible to partially coil split on a superswitch in one position, and fully split in another?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Also, I didn't see this recommended here, but I use 4.7k resistors for both neck and bridge, it gives it a sort of Tele sound in the bridge.

 

[vinnie1971]

'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I do all my coil splits with a 4.7k resistor to ground - after much experimenting I find this gives the best single coil tone without losing too much volume and still gets s little noise reduction.
I personally found using capacitors unsuccessful- they sound too mushy.
Alternatively you could hook the coil split wire to a spare pot, set up like a volume pot but taking your grounding wire from the inactive to the middle lug and ground an outside lug of the pot - then you have variable dial a split from 0 fully split to 10 fully humbucking


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[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

^ I'm really liking the 4k7 partial splits. It turns the split tone from kind of a novelty into a really great tone. It came to me the other day that it kind of sounds like a mini humbucker... No need to make a mini humbucker pickguard now.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

^ I'm really liking the 4k7 partial splits. It turns the split tone from kind of a novelty into a really great tone. It came to me the other day that it kind of sounds like a mini humbucker... No need to make a mini humbucker pickguard now.

2k is also pretty good but I find the volume drop in an HSH guitar makes it less usable. But yeah, the tone with 4.7k it's great, works with every humbucker I have


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[ibis]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I will get some 4k7 resistors soon and compare them in one of my Hamers vs what I have now (1k2 neck, 2k2 bridge).
I'll report back, hopefully before 2 years have got behind me!

Its been touched on here before but can anyone explain in simplese what happens when going from low value resistors to high value? From what I understand, will it decrease the output and make the result sound more treble? Maybe more like a single coil? As I noted before, mine are more in the P90 sounds than Fender singles. But the volume drop is not too much. Maybe to match up with the singles in a HSS or HSH guitar the 4k7 would be better?

Let me know if I'm thinking straight!

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[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Resistors do what their name says and resist current. So the higher the value, the more the red and white are prevented from being totally grounded, increasing how active the partial cut coil is.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I just put a spin o split on the hss with the ssls and the cc. It's pretty useful. On 0 it gives position 2 its authentic sound and position 1 the ice pick sound. On 1 it gives pos 1 a fuller single coil sound, 2 is mini humbucker sound, 4 is low gain humbucker and 10 is high gain humbucker.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I'm hot on the trail of getting the spin o split to be less sensitive. I measured the dcr of the cc while turning the knob and it goes from 7k to 10k immediately and then up to 12k with the knob basically on 1.5. It's a 250k pot so I'm going to try an 100k pot.

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I'm hot on the trail of getting the spin o split to be less sensitive. I measured the dcr of the cc while turning the knob and it goes from 7k to 10k immediately and then up to 12k with the knob basically on 1.5. It's a 250k pot so I'm going to try an 100k pot.

You could try a different taper as well. Spin a pair is basically a volume control for one coil.


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[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I measured the resistance of the section of the 250k that had the most effect on the split and it was about 100k or up to about 4 on the dial. So I figured I'd just expand that to the whole pot. If it ends up behaving the same I'll try a reverse log.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

This is why I like putting it on a switch instead, the spin a split gives added versatility, but with a variable resistor set at a certain position you can have the tone you want dialed in as soon as you flick the switch. Plus you don't have to worry about issues with the pot's taper.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

I like using a switch also. But a spin is good because it allows at least 1 extra setting. Full and partial for position 1, and fully split for position 2. You could do that with an on off on switch. That would be sweet.

 

[M4RK]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

Done with a 250K linear pot, and reversed respect of "standard" (that is, shorting to hot, instead of ground, in an attempt to avoid some of the overall loudness being derived to ground), my experience is that:
there are three main clearly distinguishable spots, that have their use.
There are two minor notch positions between those.
User. with a single hot bridge humbucker is really happy with the mod.

Hi Hermetico, you know how a spin o split mod works counter intuitively, if i want to make my own no load pot, should i cut the ring inside the pot on the left or right side of the lugs?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 'Partial' coil tap/split experience..

You could just use a blend pot, which works exactly the same as what you are trying to do.